The Kiss of Deception

by Mary E. Pearson

The rebellious princess runs away from an arranged marriage because she wants to experience normal life. That cliche was enough of a deterrent that The Kiss of Deception was on my shelf for a year before I tried reading it. But honestly, it was actually pretty entertaining.

Together with her handmaiden, Princess Lia of Morrighan runs away on her wedding day and settles down to work in a bar in a small village. She's followed by two men: Prince Rafe of Dalbreck, who she left at the altar; and Kaden, an assassin from Venda sent to stop the alliance between the cities of Morrighan and Dalbreck. Rafe and Kaden end up befriending Lia and, well, a love triangle happens. If you loathe love triangles, run away now!  

The chapters rotate between each character's point-of-view (POV). To make things more mysterious, "The Prince's" and "The Assassin's" POVs are featured, in addition to Rafe's and Kaden's (although it's a no brainer as to who's who). It was a really quick read for me as both the writing and the plot weren't that complex. If you're able to make it through the first book, where Lia spends the majority of her time as a bar maid, the second book is where the actual adventure begins.

The Kiss of Deception and The Heart of Betrayal are available as eBooks on Overdrive.

The Firebug of Balrog County

The Firebug of Balrog County

By David Oppegaard

Mack Druneswald is a high school senior living in Balrog County.  (Mack has named it Balrog County after the fiery monster in Lord of the Rings.  Its real name is something as boring as the place itself.)

But Mack has more to contend with than boredom.  His mother has passed away, leaving him lonely and vulnerable.  What’s a well-read geek to do but start setting fires?

Arson becomes Mack’s drug of choice.  As his internal “firebug” encourages his antics, Mack increasingly requires bigger and more daring fires to satisfy his need.

When Mack meets Katrina, a college girl who is attracted to his geeky intelligent self as well as his secret identity as a pyromaniac, Mack becomes more audacious and longs to set fire to the town’s Halloween Haunted Castle.

Although Mack’s exploits are often clever and amusing, there is nothing funny about the loss of his mother.  The reminiscences about Mack’s mother are heartfelt and emotional.  This book will make you cry and laugh out loud, all the while rooting for a kid that sets fires all over town.

Book of the Month - June - Front Lines

By Michael Grant

In this alternate history set during World War II, a court decision makes women subject to the draft and eligible for service.  Not just desk jobs, either – they’re going to be on the front lines. This doesn’t mean that everyone is thrilled with the idea, though – there’s still a huge amount of sexism among the general public, and among the troops as well.

Front Lines is told from the viewpoints of three female characters: Rio Richlin is a white teen from a small town in Northern California.  Frangie Marr is a black teen from Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Rainy Schulterman is a Jewish teen from New York City.  Each of the three has their own reasons for enlisting in the army, and the book follows them from their days State-side before enlisting, all the way through to the battle of Kasserine Pass in Tunisia.  

Very readable, at times heartbreaking, this is a powerful story of war, and also a commentary on gender expectations and race issues during the early 1940s.  At first glance it seems like a long book – it is 548 pages, after all – but it’s a quick read, and you’ll find yourself turning the pages to see what happens next.  One thing to note, though, there is some language used that may be offensive to some readers – racial slurs and derogatory language towards women.      

Other books like Front Lines: Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys

Passenger

Passenger by Alexandra Bracken

A new YA historical time-travel romance novel where said time travel occurs at the sound of orchestra music and the male protagonist is African-American and our first adventure back in time puts us on a pirate ship in 1776? Was this book written just for me?!

Etta is a seventeen-year-old violin prodigy. She lives with her mom, with whom she has a somewhat strained relationship, and she's never known her dad. Stories of her mother's life before Etta are riddled with inconsistencies, which have in part kept the mother and daughter at a distance.

One evening, while on stage at a violin performance, a strange sound pierces the auditorium, throwing Etta into hysterics and setting an incredible transformation into motion. The only other person who seems to hear the sound and know what is going on is a fellow teen violinist named Sophia. The girls are pushed through a time passage and land on a ship under attack, in the middle of the ocean, in the 18th century. 

How, and why, have Etta and Sophia managed to travel through time? As you might imagine, the answers are complex and span the centuries, as powerful time-travelling families fight to uncover a hidden artifact that could change the course of human history forever.

This book was...more work than I expected. It is long, and it took a while for me to get into it. However, the time travel sequences, the romance with a freed slave, and the treasure hunt leading to a surprise twist ending was enough to keep me going, and in the end I did enjoy it quite a bit. This is first in a series by Alexandra Bracken, who is also the author of the popular The Darkest Minds trilogy.

As Dead as it Gets

As Dead as it gets

By Katie Alender

I'll be completely honest I was waiting for the first book in this trilogy and I got tired of waiting so instead I decided to start at the end. Here at the library we often find ourselves unable to find the first book in a series and we don't always know if the books can be read out of order. Will the story stand on its own? I decided to see if this was the case with As Dead as it gets book 3 in the Bad Girls Don't Die series.

I was pleasantly surprised. I did not need to read the first two books to be able to follow along as Alexis tries to get her life back to normal after witnessing the death of a friend. Alexis has a special, if not annoying, ability. She can see and communicate with ghosts. Some may think this would be a wonderful ability but ghosts are everywhere and some can be really intrusive and even life threatening.

This story is filled with thrills and chills as an angry ghost named Lydia seams to be trying to exact revenge on our poor Alexis. Just when Alexis is starting to fall in love and settle into year book committee her life is turned upside down when young girls from school start going missing and turning up dead. If you are looking for a creepy and haunting read with a little romance thrown in then check out As Dead as it gets today also available through Hoopla streaming audio book.

Here is the book trailer too. Enjoy! Supernatural

Book of the Month: May - Carry On

by Rainbow Rowell

Simon Snow is your average foster kid in England, shuttled from care home to care home during his summer holidays from Watford School of Magicks.  Did I say average?  Simon's one of the most powerful mages in England.  Or he would be if only he could get his magic under control.  Usually when Simon uses his magic, the spells don't work or they work too well.  He suspects his roommate at Watford, Baz, is a vampire, and Simon and Baz don't get along very well.  Needless to say, Simon's afraid that Baz is going to sink his fangs into his neck while he sleeps.  To add insult to injury, Simon believes his girlfriend, Agatha, has thrown him over for Baz.  His best friend, Penelope, constantly breaks school rules by sneaking into Simon and Baz's room.  On top of all that, there have been attacks by the Insidious Humdrum, and strange dead spots have been appearing all over England where magic has just disappeared.

A series of strange events marks the beginning of Simon's final year at Watford, namely the fact that Baz's dead mother, Natasha, appears to Simon and delivers a cryptic message about the circumstances of her death for Simon to give to Baz; and an obviously ill Baz doesn't show up to the school until eight weeks into the term.  Once Baz returns to Watford, he, Simon, and Penelope team up to try and uncover the tangled mystery surrounding Natasha's death, while also trying to figure out how to defeat the Humdrum.

Rowell first introduced us to Simon Snow in her novel Fangirl, where it's a fictional fantasy series that bears more than a passing resemblance to the Harry Potter phenomenon.  Rather than write the book as the fictional author might have, Rowell has basically written a fan-fiction novelization of a fictional fantasy series she created.  Got that?  The Harry Potter influence is so strong in Carry On, that for the first third of the book, it's impossible not to mentally tally all the bits and pieces that are literary cousins to their Harry Potter counterparts.  Once Baz arrives on the scene, though, the story really picks up and races to the frantic and satisfying conclusion.

It's worth mentioning that although Rowell's magical world somewhat resembles that of Harry Potter, it diverges in significant ways.  Rowell's witches and mages live in the world of Normals, use smartphones, and create savvy Google searches.  Spells are common catchphrases or quotes from popular movies or songs, and witches and mages don't always use wands.

I was a little disappointed that Rowell didn't delve as deeply into the emotional lives of Simon or Baz as she did in her award-winning novel, Eleanor & Park.  Still, Simon and Baz's inner monologues probe their emotional attachments to each other and their families and friends.  As in her other novels, characters are allowed to unfold slowly across the pages of the book.  Character development is not rushed or forced, which also helps keep the reader on their toes as the resolution of the book approaches.

Readers of Rowell's other YA novels, Eleanor & Park, and Fangirl will probably love this novel.  So will readers of the Harry Potter series, if they can help themselves from comparing it to Harry Potter.  There's enough mystery to keep mystery fans engaged, too.

Other books like Carry On: The Magicians by Lev Grossman, A Hero at the End of the World by Erin Claiborne, The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness, and The Young Elites by Marie Lu.

The Rithmatist

The Rithmatist

  By Brandon Sanderson

Joel is a high-school student who, despite his poverty, attends the exclusive Armedius Academy.  He has access to some of the best teachers in the United Isles. Yet he squanders the opportunity to excel at most academic subjects because more than anything, he wants to become a Rithmatist.

Rithmatists are chosen by the Master (or God) at age 8.  They can create chalk drawings that are more than just lines on the pavement: the drawings have power and life.  Using defensive techniques that they study at school, Rithmatists must learn to defend against chalklings drawn by others.  The chalklings are creatures that eat away at Rithmatic defenses and can ultimately kill.  When students reach their last year of high school they go to apprentice in Nebrask, where an ongoing war against wild chalklings has been raging for years.  

Regular students and Rithmatic students have always kept their distance.  But things change at Armedius when a Rithmatic student disappears.  When two more go missing, the campus goes into lockdown mode.  

Inspector Harding, who is sent to locate the missing students, recruits Professor Fitch as the man to help him understand the Rithmatic aspects of these apparent crimes.  Strange new lines have been discovered at the scenes and these could be the key to solving the mystery.  

As Fitch’s assistant, Joel becomes involved.  Joel understands Rithmatic theory more than most, but he is not a Rithmatist.  Melody, however, is a remedial Rithmatic student and may be able to help Joel. As Joel and Melody become acquainted, their skills begin to meld together, taking Rithmatics to another level.  But can they really help solve a series of major crimes?

The Rithmatist is a fast-paced and suspenseful novel with an element of fantasy.  The very idea of the Rithmatic drawings and the theory behind them is fascinating – unlike any other fantasy novel I have ever read.  Joel is an immediately likeable character and readers will be rooting for his success.  I couldn’t put it down!